19.07.2004 “I can hardly believe it, it wasn't until this Thursday night that the team called and invited me to drive" Krohn-Barbour race report from Sonoma

David Brabham's pursuit of the podium in this year's American Le Mans Series received an early blow at Infineon Raceway when his Krohn-Barbour Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT was forced to retire before the Australian had even climbed aboard.

Team-mate Peter Kox was running fourth in the GTS class when he was forced to pit 25 minutes into the race with differential failure. The problem was so severe that the team was unable to contemplate a repair.

“I smelled smoke and thought it was gearbox oil, especially as the gearshift was getting worse," the Dutchman reported, "The team called me in because there was a lot of smoke coming out the back of the car.

"By the time I got to the pits, I couldn't smell smoke anymore, as there was no oil left in the differential.”

The new team received a morale boost, however, as the rebuilt sister car, crewed on this occasion by team owner Tracy Krohn and stand-in co-driver David McEntee, took second place in the hotly-contested GTS class. Running a consistent pace through the event, and having picked their way through the field from seventh in class, and 24th on the grid, the duo was only beaten to the chequered flag by the Chevrolet Corvette of Ron Fellows and Johnny O'Connell.

The result, although in part aided by the rate of attrition in California, was the best yet for the new Murciélago, which only made its ALMS race debut just three weeks ago, and also bettered the car's best result to date by surpassing the third place it took in a rare FIA GT outing in Europe.

Team co-founder Krohn, partnered by new co-driver McEntee as Scott Maxwell had to update his sportsman's visa before being able to compete, was racing the Lamborghini for the first time, with Krohn taking in his first-ever ALMS race after being sidelined from rounds two and three of the series by a practice accident at Mid-Ohio.

There were a few tense minutes in the closing stages of the race as the second Corvette of Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta pushed hard to catch the Lamborghini for second place. The yellow machine was recovering from time lost in the pits while repairing accident damage incurred when Gavin skated off-track while disputing the same piece of asphalt as McEntee.

With half-an-hour of the race remaining, the Lamborghini appeared to be well ahead, although the Corvette was slowly closing in. Then McEntee was called into the pits for a penalty, imposed because the pit-crew had started working on the Lamborghini before Krohn had cut the engine for its final scheduled stop.

With the silver machine having held a few laps' advantage over the Corvette, the stop threatened more than the pressure on track, but McEntee emerged still holding a decisive gap on his rival.

“It's awesome!" Krohn, who set up Krohn-Barbour Racing with sportscar legend Dick Barbour, said, "I was never aware that the Corvette was back on track and trying to catch us, I was just doing consistent laps and trying to stay focused in the heat. It got to be hard work out there because this track has got a lot more for you than you think.”

McEntee, who's day job is track instructor at Infineon Raceway, and who finished second in the LMP675 class of the ALMS race there two years ago, was equally delighted at his successful introduction to the Italian supercar.

“I can hardly believe it," he said, "It wasn't until this Thursday night that the team called and invited me to drive. The Lamborghini's a great car and this is a great result.”